While it will probably not be the next Netflix hit original, the twelve minutes of Creative Commons licensed content that make up “Meridian” will have a major impact on the Society of Motion Picture and Television Engineers (SMPTE) by sharing resources to make the open source standard Interoperable Master Format (IMF) more usable across the web. The content is experimental and strange, but when developers get their hands on it, these twelve minutes may change the future of content distribution forever.

As Variety writes, “Netflix is using a Creative Commons license for the release of “Meridian,” which is new for an industry that isn’t used to sharing a lot of resources. ‘They are in the business of exploiting content, not of giving it away,’ [Chris Fetner of Netflix] said.”

What this means is that in this global movie business, the SMPTE will find it easier to release subtitles and locally specific content for a global audience, releasing content faster and more accurately than ever before. Developers can access the Meridian codex or work with Netflix’s hundreds of open source projects to create a better IMF standard with the company.

This usage of the license is exactly the kind of usage we hope for: a more agile workflow through open licensing and a spirit of cooperation that creates better technical standards. By using the CC license for this project, Netflix is saying lights, camera, action to the dream of a more innovative world.

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One of the projects I knew I wanted to take on when I joined Creative Commons as CEO was a major website redesign. The CC site has always been a valuable source of information about our mission, our community, and the legal tools we offer. While there’s a lot of new things happening at CC, our website didn’t reflect that with an old design. Also, with 1.1 billion works in the commons, it’s sad not to show any of that vibrancy in our site. My goal was for Creative Commons to have a website that more clearly communicated what we do, reflected the commons back to our community, and also looked modern, clean, and beautiful.

I’m extremely happy to say that Creative Commons now has that website. Over the summer we soft-launched a brand new version of CreativeCommons.org. Today, after several weeks of fixing bugs and tidying up content, we’re celebrating with a public announcement about the redesign to our partners, friends, and followers online.

Besides a much-needed aesthetic overhaul, you’ll notice that the new site more clearly outlines our work across all fields, from arts and culture to education to science. Some other highlights include a newly designed blog and a dynamic section at the bottom of our homepage that will keep you apprised of the wide array of incredible creative projects in the growing commons.

We worked closely with the Vancouver-based web firm Affinity Bridge on the new site, and I cannot say enough what a joy it was to collaborate with such a talented and insightful group. I’m also grateful to Matt Lee and Rob Myers for their efforts to bring the new site online, and preserve over a decade’s worth of content. A huge thank you to our community and members of the Creative Commons board and advisory board for all their feedback on the new design.

We’re not finished, of course. A website is a living, breathing thing, and we’ll continue improving and building ours out over time. The next phase of our work will include improvements to our fundraising infrastructure, and also the development of a WordPress template that our affiliates can customize for their own pages. It will build on the look and feel of the main site, but will make it easy for affiliates to set up their own pages without building new sites.

I hope you’ll find a few minutes to explore the new site, if you haven’t already. As you come across any bugs or issues that you think we should take a look at, please feel free to report them to us on GitHub.

The post A long-awaited new look for our website appeared first on Creative Commons.

It upholds the dignity of mankind. We need to be open-minded to understand and tap into the beauty of open education.

The post “It upholds the dignity of mankind”: the power of OER in West Africa appeared first on Creative Commons.

Copyright policy should benefit everyone, not just legacy rightsholders

Today the European Commission released its legislative proposal for changes to EU copyright law. The proposal has been introduced as a Directive on copyright in the Digital Single Market.

The Directive fails to deliver on the promise for a modern copyright law in Europe.

In an ideal world, the Directive would have provided for progressive policy changes to serve the goals of a unified digital marketplace across Europe. It would have jumpstarted economic activity, championed innovative digital technologies and services, and protected consumers and access to information. It would have expanded opportunities for European businesses, cultural heritage institutions, educators, and the research community.

This is not the world presented to us by the Commission. Instead, the copyright proposal introduces protectionist measures for incumbent rightsholders while providing only lip service to Internet users, teachers, new businesses, and consumers. The proposal contains the same problems we saw in the leaked impact assessment and draft directive, including:

• An ancillary copyright (aka “link tax”) for press publishers to extract fees from search engines for incorporating short snippets of—or even linking to—their content. This would undermine the intention of authors who wish to share without additional strings attached, including Creative Commons licenses.

• A copyright exception for education covering digital content that Member States can ignore if there’s a content licensing option available for the educational materials.

• A limited exception for text and data mining available only to nonprofit research institutions. This will restrict the potential for text and data mining discoveries and innovation because it specifically excludes the private sector.

• A copyright exception for cultural heritage institutions to digitize their collections, but not put them online.

• A mechanism that would require Internet platforms to proactively monitor user uploaded content in order to identify and remove copyright infringing content.

The Commission’s proposal does not represent the interests of the public or the recommendations from tens of thousands of internet users, consumers, teachers, startups, and activists. It’s now up to the Parliament and the Council to reshape this flawed copyright proposal in a way that benefits everyone.

Photo by Paul Green via Unsplash, CC0
Copyright symbol by Marek Polakovic, CC BY 3.0 US
European Union stars by anbileru adaleru, CC BY 3.0 US

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Let’s start the school year right!

Open education is at the core of our work and with many countries going back to school this week, we wanted to kick off our #backtoschool week some more practical advice about how you can use open educational resources in your classroom. From textbooks to courses to entire degree programs, the OER movement has your back with free, CC licensed materials that will help your students access and keep high quality, effective learning resources. Supporting OER means supporting maximum equity and access within education, allowing all students to learn with the up-to-date content, regardless of their economic background.

This post is for teachers and students who want to learn more, get going, and start using OER this year.

Learn about OER

The best place to start is at the OER Strategy document, a living document that tracks the progress of a global OER strategy. This document will help you think through what actions you might take to create, adopt and share OER this year. This OER for K-12 Educators FAQ might also be helpful.

OER must be both free (no cost) for anyone to access and to legally modify (according to the 5R activities: retain, reuse, revise, remix, redistribute).

Find others’ OER and reuse, revise or remix it

Replace expensive textbooks with an open textbook your students can access, keep, and you can modify. Check out the Open Textbook Library or BC Campus for a list of free, CC licensed textbooks.

Why start from scratch every time you need to create a lecture or assemble a slide deck? By using OER, faculty can easily supplement their lectures and learning materials with content that is already openly licensed and available for sharing. By sharing their own work as OER, faculty can maximize the impact and visibility of their scholarly work across the global learning community.

Openly licensed learning materials are easy to find and access, encouraging more independent and flexible learning opportunities for students. OER courses allow students to explore materials before enrolling, making them better prepared before they arrive in the classroom.

Share your work as OER

Using others’ OER is a great first step, and other educators will be thrilled you used their OER and improve it. But don’t forget – you create amazing learning resources for your students all the time as well.

Do you think other teachers, professors, and/or students could benefit from your good work? If yes – and you are willing to share – CC licensing your work is a snap. Many educators openly license their content on technology platforms like Flickr or YouTube, but you can also use the Creative Commons license chooser to put an open license on your work. See also: Marking your work with a CC license.

Give gratitude for OER

When someone gives me a gift, I say “thank you” to express my gratitude. When you use someone’s OER, you are benefitting from the gift that author donated to the commons. Make sure you say “thank you” by giving credit – or providing proper attribution on slides and other materials. Check out CC’s best practices for attribution.

Conclusion

We believe OER will replace much of the expensive, proprietary content used in academic courses – it’s only a matter of time. When OER becomes the default for learning resources, we can have a world in which the public has free, legal and unfettered access to effective, high quality education and research resources, and learning opportunities generating more equitable economic opportunities globally for all learners.

The post How can educators find and use OER in their classrooms? appeared first on Creative Commons.